In an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless communications system, a cyclic prefix (CP) is added to the front of each OFDM symbol to overcome inter symbol interference (ISI). When two consecutive OFDM symbols are transmitted from the base station and there are two communications paths from the base station to the mobile station, the mobile station receives two replicas of the symbol pair at different corresponding path delays, resulting on one symbol in one pair overlapping (in time) the other symbol in the second pair. That temporal overlap of the two symbols creates the potential for ISI, and is overcome by adding the CP. As the delay spread between the two different path delays becomes larger, a longer duration CP is needed to eliminate the possibility of overlap. However, a longer CP decreases the data rates by allocating less of the available time to data transmission.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for reduced cyclic prefix duration as delay spread increases within multiple transmission path environments.